Bye, Buy Burden

Best Buy tests free e-waste recycling program to ease its eco-impact 3

Electronics retailer Best Buy announced on Monday that it's testing a free electronic-waste recycling program in 117 of its stores in the Baltimore, Minneapolis, and San Francisco areas, plus a few other select stores in the East and Midwest. Customers can bring in up to two e-waste items per day for free recycling, including TVs, computers, video-game consoles, VCRs, and the like. "We want to take the time to learn if we can handle this before we go any further," said Best Buy spokesperson Kelly Groehler. "We know the need is there and the waste stream is there. We think everyone needs to bear some responsibility for this -- consumers, retailers and manufacturers." If all goes well, Best Buy could expand the program to include its 805 other U.S. stores.

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  1. archigeek Posted 1:34 am
    02 Jun 2008

    Whither trash...Ya, but where does the waste go after that? To a domestic special waste recycling center where it's broken down into its' constituent parts, or into a container for the trip to China via diesel-powered 100,000T container ship?
  2. rjmart01 Posted 3:40 am
    02 Jun 2008

    I could be wrong, but ...... I checked both the Best Buy and As You Sow sites.  Neither of them mentioned anything about where the recycled computers end up, although AYS mentioned the benefit of keeping them out of (presumably US) landfills.
    AYS has a complementary initiative about managing Ewaste, but it appears to be separate from the computer recycling program.  Go figure.
    Given the carefully crafted wording on both sites, the absolute absence of any identified destination, and the fact that AYS seems to make its living by selling "corporate responsibility" on a path-of-least-resistence basis, I'm dreadfully afraid that the answer to Archigeeks question is "a slow boat to China".
  3. tinare23 Posted 2:51 am
    05 Jun 2008

    where does it goI agree.  I would like to know where it is going as well.

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